One door closes; another opens

In life, humans seem to fall into certain careers or jobs and stay there. I have been at the teaching game for 30 years.

I came into the ministry later in life because God opened a door, and I had the courage to step through.

Other people don’t always take the opportunities when they are presented, and sometimes they need a shove.

My oldest daughter is an example. After high school, she became a veterinary technician, which is a fancy name for an animal nurse.

She took all the same courses that regular nurses do, and she performs the same tasks but just on animals instead of people.

Then, last year she was pinned between a 2,000-pound bull and a wooden fence and damaged her liver. The result was a very painful injury that took a while to heal.

She expressed a desire to earn her living doing something else, but she didn’t have any other training and didn’t see a way out of her predicament.

Being a teacher, I gently suggested she apply to the school district as a para-educator. As a teen she had rejected any suggestion that teaching might be the career for her.

Surprisingly, she applied and was hired at one of the middle schools in Moses Lake. She works in a special needs room and really enjoys it.

Seeing that she liked what she was doing, I voiced another idea. I suggested she go back to school online and get her teaching certificate. I thought an online course would be easier to handle with a family.

At first she expressed doubts, but in the end, it worked out. She started school this week through WGU and is going strong.

It isn’t always easy to change your direction in life but sometimes the direction we thought we should go isn’t the direction that God wanted for us.

Jeremiah 29:11 says, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

To follow God’s plan you have to be willing to open yourself up to the Holy Spirit and go where he leads you.

It can be scary and even hard but well worth it in the end. Don’t just sit around and complain about your life. Let God lead you.